1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a medium transporting device and a recording apparatus including the medium transporting device.
The term “recording apparatus” as used herein encompasses an ink jet printer, a line printer, a copying machine, a facsimile, and the like.
2. Related Art
Recording apparatuses represented by facsimiles and printers include those that are capable of performing two-sided recording on a recording sheet, which is one example of a medium. Such a recording apparatus has an inversion pathway on which a recording sheet inverted, as illustrated in JP-A-2012-240813, for example. A recording sheet is back-fed into the inversion pathway after recording is performed on its first face (front face). Then, the recording sheet is transported again to a region facing a recording head with its second face (rear face) facing upwards.
According to the recording apparatus described in JP-A-2012-240813, an inversion pathway is formed by utilizing an outer peripheral surface of a roller (hereinafter referred to as a “roller for inversion”). It is therefore necessary to increase the size of the roller for inversion in order to invert a large sheet such as an A3-size sheet.
However, in a case where the size of the roller for inversion is increased in order to invert a large sheet, a small sheet such as an A4-size sheet also is inverted with this roller for inversion, and this small sheet is transported through an inversion pathway designed for the large sheet.
Accordingly, the small sheet travels an extra distance when it is inverted on the inversion pathway. Consequently, the inversion pathway including this roller for inversion takes a longer time to invert a small sheet, resulting in a decline in throughput.
Moreover, in a case where this recording apparatus includes, for example, a front sheet feeding pathway for feeding a sheet from a front side of the recording apparatus and executing recording on the sheet in addition to a transporting pathway for transporting a sheet from a sheet cassette, the inversion pathway is used to transport a sheet P to the region facing the recording head where recording is performed on the sheet P.
As a result, a small sheet fed to the front sheet feeding pathway is also transported from the front sheet feeding pathway to the recording head via the inversion pathway. Accordingly, the small sheet travels a long distance. This results in a decline in throughput.